The strong demographic growth in the districts in the north of Barcelona led to the approval in 1953 of the final project to build a new metro line, the ‘Transversal Alto’, between the existing Sagrera station and the Plaça d’Eivissa, in Horta. Until then, the neighbourhoods where the line would be built were served by many bus and tram lines.

The station was built using the cut-and-cover method under Plaça del Virrei Amat, so the trams that crossed it had to be diverted. Even though the station is placed in the neighbourhood of Santa Eulàlia de Vilapicina, the name of the square was chosen for the station. It was built on a curve, with two side platforms, and it is placed at the beginning of a steep incline that still today holds the record for being the steepest one in the whole metro network. It was this incline that contributed to the worst accident ever in the Barcelona metro, a crash between two trains in this station in 1975. Two people lost their lives and more than 200 were injured.

The official opening took place on July 21st 1959, and it was an event with special solemnity, as the line was the first new metro line put in service since the 1920s. The opening committee (formed, among others, by the railroads director, Pascual Lorenzo Ochando, and the mayor of Barcelona, José Maria de Porcioles), travelled from Catalunya station to Sagrera. After the blessing of the rolling stock and infrastructure by the bishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego Casaus, the committee took the first train of the new line to Vilapicina station, where the opening speeches took place.

The original rolling stock in the line were seven two-car trains of the 600 series. Interestingly, in 1961 an automatic train operation (ATO) system was installed in the trains. Despite being a very basic and unreliable system, it represents the first real example of an automatic metro system in the world. The system was abandoned in 1969, one year before the unification of line II and line V.